Thursday, November 5, 2009

Have you ever been enjoying a nice pastrami sandwich and thought to yourself, "This is good, but I really wish it had some bones in it." Well, this recipe was an attempt to solve that age-old desire.

I've taken a spice rub traditionally used on a beef brisket to make pastrami, and applied it to America's favorite appetizer, chicken wings. This resulted in a pretty nice chicken wing recipe, which tasted nothing like pastrami.

I guess I'm asking for trouble calling it "Pastrami Wings." If your palette is set for some rich, fatty, smoky pastrami, you will be disappointed. As I joke in the video, a chicken ain't a cow, and no chicken wing will ever taste like real pastrami.

Having said that, so what? They're just chicken wings. Perfect for this time of year, since for sports fans this is the ultimate sweet spot on the calendar. You can watch baseball, football, basketball (I wish the Bay Area had a team), hockey (Go Sharks!), golf, and several other minor sports (like college football).

What better way to veg on the couch for 14 hours, than with a plate of chicken wings that don't taste like pastrami? Honey, can you grab me another beer? My fingers are all greasy. Enjoy!

71 comments:

Hey John, Love your posts. Just a tiny correction on your latest post. The Bay Area does have several basketball teams - Golden State Warriors (pro), University of California (college pre-season #10 in the country), Stanford, Santa Clara, St. Mary's, USF (college). The pastrami chicken wings'll come in handy pre- and post-game!

I think this is part of a conspiracy though! Having just seen this photo through the wonders of google (http://www.bloganything.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/cows-eat-chicken.jpg). I believe you're trying to get us to eat more "chikin"! To which I say fair enough but please, please make a Nando's Peri-Peri sauce recipe to go with it! :D

Chicken wings that taste like pastrami... hmm. I think this would be the perfect addition to our Sunday/Monday night football parties. Yes I do both. They sound delicious. Glad I found this now so I can give it a trial run with my wife first.

I read in the paper yesterday that in America the chicken breast fillet is much cheaper than the wing. It's the other way in Sweden. I think it's probably because the breast is so much easier to cock. But I will try your recipe and if it's any good I will spread the word. Winterly Greetings from a cold Sweden

That's the way to eat a wing...shucks i thought you were going to say something worth while. That's the reason why id dont eat boneless wings eating the meat from the bones make it taste better taking them out make it taste doughy and nasty...no thanks i'm going to eat the way i love others will eat the way they love...that's the right way

Your "How to eat a chicken wing breakthrough" is not actually a breakthrough at all. My friends and I have been favoring the "flats" as you called them for years. Your method is slow and as you yourself stated leaves a little cartilage in the more narrow end. My proposal to you to improve your method (yes, I said improve): use the narrower end to ply the meat from. Similarly to your method, pinch between the bones at the narrow end and pull the cartilage free. If you get some chicken with it, eat it while holding the cartilage. Then work the meat away from the ends of the two exposed bones by simply going around each end with two fingers. Once you have separated the meat from the ends of the bones, place the exposed narrow end bones on a dish/napkin/whatever clean surface you have and pinch between the wider bones and push down, pinching the whole way. As with your method, if the wing is cooked properly there will be no fuss or muss when you are done. If meat lingers for some reasons on the bones, well, it is a quick cleanup, but what you will have in your hand will be all meat no bone. If you would like a video of this method, I would be glad to oblige. But I know it has been in use by many people for over 20 yrs.

We tried this at supper tonight but we had no wings in house so we tried it with legs. Wow! No leftovers! The taste was intense. Recommend this highly! We ended up cooking the legs about 25 minutes per side and they were perfect.

I have deboned chicken before, but I never thought of doing that on chicken wings! thanks for the tip! By the way do you have any more cooking videos? I would LOVE to take a gander at them. Maybe they can help my cooking!

I've been looking for a good recipe for wings in the oven, but they always seem to be too greasy. These were great and not greasy. If I hadn't forgotten the salt, I'd be even happier. Still, though, great technique, the flour makes the difference.

You should prep the wings by steaming them for 10 minutes first, then pat them dry and let them cool before the spice rub. Alton Brown does this and it renders some of the schmaltz (chicken fat) out of the wings, leaving you with a crispier, less greasy wing. And because they were steamed, the finished product doesn't have that boiled chicken taste.

I tend to also bake them on a nonstick cooling rack with a foil drip tray for an added crisp factor.

Chef John, Thanks for this recipe, you have converted my wife to loving chicken wings. I have made these 3 times now, and i think this time I hit on the perfect combination. I used Hot Paprika instead of smoked, and a lot of pepper, and instead of mixing in the oil, i brushed it on after the wings were in the pan, it made the wings super crispy, and the hot paprika + a little cayenne pepper made them just right, in the heat department. I hesitate to call them pastrami wings anymore, but they are probably the most delicious wings i've ever had. Thank you VERY much for this!

So good. Just made these today and they were a huge hit. Wish I had some left over. BTW I added some garlic powder. Excellent. And made a Russian dressing for a dip, but also made a simple mustard dip (mustard and mayo) and that was even better. YUM!! Thank you Chef John. Love these wings.

Hi Chef, I would like to know how to keep the chicken from sticking to foil paper or should i use wax paper, because my skin always rips off, and i want to make this recipe without this happening, I have not found the silicone mat yet.

I so just made these! since you said to add more spices, i went with what you said + herbs de provence, powdered galic, powdered chilli, sweet curry and hot curry, and some sesame seeds sprinkled on top.still wasn't hot enough, so i made a sweet and sour chilli dip.anyways, your recipe got me a standing ovation, as did the deboning technique, so much love from Romania, chef John!

Thank you Chef John for posting another chicken recipe. I really like your chicken recipes especially the "Super Bowl Garlic & Ginger Chicken Wings" & Black Lemon Chicken. Now I am so excited and I can't wait to make this dish for my family. Honestly I prefer baking than deep frying the chicken. So I hope in future Chef may post more recipe videos on baking the chicken.

I just prepared these wings (A half batch) and upon adding the ingredients I realized that there is a TON of pepper in this recipe. I mean I know you said in the video that black pepper and coriander are the main pastrami spices but honestly, did you mean to put TSP instead of TBSP when writing out the ingredient amounts on here? Because I just prepared the chicken as if you made that mistake in the recipe and it looked exactly like the video when everything was finished being mixed in (but not baked yet). I made these to refrigerate overnight so I can have a quick lunch tomorrow with them so I guess I'll find out tomorrow afternoon when I taste them if the black pepper , coriander, and paprika amounts were mistakes or not (I'm sure it'll have less flavor than needed if they weren't). By the way, just made your onion rings as a side item for dinner and they were FABULOUS! Needed a lot of salting but you were right about them being the crispiest ever! My first time making home-made onion rings and I think I will probably find even Burger King's rings soggy-like after trying those! LOL The onion ring recipe and the chicken fingers recipe on this site have made me a lover of panko crumbs, I've used about 3-4 boxes since i've discovered your site and my regular container of breadcrumbs aren't even opened yet. Think Progresso owes you a big Thankyou!

I am relatively new to your sight, and have to say I love it. As for the wings I’m kind of a red neck and I have been smoking hot and BBQ wings for about three years now and they are always a huge hit. So I think I might try this seasoning mix on a few next time. I have made 5 or 6 of your recipes and really appreciate all of your hard work.